Merry Christmas to you

We wish all our readers merry Christmas and prosperous year, 2021 ahead. 

We can hear the happy singing of Christmas songs and carol, rejoicing. Children are happy as daddies and mummies adorn them with new dresses, by those who could afford it, at least! No matter what, Christmas must be celebrated. Christ is the reason for the season. There must be something to eat, to chew and to drink, the frustrating economic reality notwithstanding. 

It's good to be alive to witness another Christmas. It's particularly so, in this year of a deadly pandemic! Looking at the latest covid-19 figures, more than 1.7 million people who entered the year 2020 with us in high spirit have been dead! Just as a result of one ferocious and unrelenting virus! The number does not include victims of other killer agents, both man made and natural. Mankind is indeed burdened. But that is exactly the reason the Saviour was born. To save mankind from self destruct. Man has imposed on himself many destructive elements from which he needed to be saved. Ironically, the world the Messiah came to save rejected its Saviour and turned round to crucify him! This crucifixion still manifests itself in various ways till this very day, particularly in the persecution of those who try to do the will of God. 

Recently, we published a research finding which indicates a rising government restrictions on the freedom of belief and religious worship worldwide About a week later, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, announced the addition of some countries on the US black book of countries hostile to freedom of religious worship. And Nigeria is one of them! Our country has continually been in the news for bad reasons in recent years. 

Leah Sharibu

Leah Sharibu, a 14 year old Christian young girl in Nigeria, has been in the captivity of boko haram abductors since February 19, 2018. Her only crime was that she was born a Christian in the midst of people who are intolerant of freedom of conscience and religion! Out of more than 100 girls kidnapped, Leah was the only Christian. The rest are Muslims. Her mates were later released. Leah was asked to renounce her Christian faith as precondition for her release. She refused! And she is left to her wicked abductors, abandoned even by the federal government which had negotiated the release of her mates! 

We have seen how swiftly the government has acted to secure the release of the 333 students of Government Science School, Kankara Katsina state, abducted recently by bandits. Although government claimed it paid no ransom for their release, feelers coming out suggest otherwise. Hundreds of millions of naira may have been paid! Meanwhile, the distraught parents of Leah Sharibu have witnessed yet another Christmas with their daughter still in captivity, almost 3 years on! 

For those who live by the daily experience of a total blackout in public power supply, like the one we have been subjected to in our area in Nigeria, you will understand what the word "darkness" really means. Each time any occasion which has to do with the name of Jesus Christ has to be celebrated, there will be lot of dislocations. Things, all of a sudden, will start to malfunction! Prices will skyrocket. Scarcity sets in. There will be total blackout and darkness! These are part of the rejection, persecution and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is often called "the cross of Christ", which we must always carry. 

The world is in utter darkness. And it is groping for a light. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. He is the Light that shines in darkness. The Apostle John, in his Gospel, puts it this way, "The Word was in the world, and though God made the world through him, yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own country, but his own people did not receive him. Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God's children" (John 1:10-11). 

That right extends to you, if you have really accepted him in truth and love. But if you haven't yet, time may be actually running out on you! You had better done so now, not later, to avoid the sure regret to come! 

Looking at the creche of nativity, one cannot but be struck by the humility and wisdom of a God who allowed his only Begotten Son to be born in a manger! A child born to be King of kings! Why not in a 5-star hospital? He who is Somebody chooses to make himself "nobody," while those who are "nobody" made themselves rebellious gods over God of all creation! A lesson to us in humility.

Merry Christmas to you all.